View from the Levee: No One's Home

Photo via Financial PressA field of cornstalks sits next to the Lincolnland Agri-Energy ethanol plant in Palestine, Illinois.

The 1,000-mile, roundtrip drive through the heart of the American cornbelt was not as long as it was revealing.

The first leg was an eight-hour, all interstate trip from Peoria through the Iowa cedars—Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls—with a sweeping westward arc to the top of the Hawkeye state before an easy, cruise-control 90 miles into America’s most livable city, Minneapolis.